The Unlikely Jazz Capital: Asunción

Hundreds of people sit on the street every week in the hottest jazz capital.

New York? Rio? Paris? No. Asunción, Paraguay.

Never in my life have I ever seen a jazz scene so insistently popular as in Asuncíon. Taxi drivers, street kids, college students, urban professionals. Armed with yerba mate to ward off the cold of the Southern Cone winter, hundreds of people of all ages come out on a Sunday night to listen to a new crop of young jazz musicians. Freshly made mojitos and caipirinhas can be bought for veinte mil guaranies–four dollars–from a makeshift bar on Calle Palma in the zona colonial of downtown Asunción.

There’s no irony here, rather, unabashed appreciation for jazz standard for new
compositions and a clever incorporation of traditional Paraguayan musical motiffs.

Homemade infusions

Pirate Bar

And that’s just on Sundays. Almost every night of the week, there’s jazz somewhere in the city. Here’s where to go for jazz in Asunción